Integration of offshore wind turbines and hydrogen production through electrolysis

In a world that is struggling against the rapid escalation of climate changes, the key to reduce the greenhouse gases emission without arresting the process of economic and social development is to increase the exploitation of low carbon energy systems. Among them, solar PV and wind energy are one of the most common and widespread, although still far from the target point in most of the net-zero scenarios. The main issues related to these resources are the inconstancy of the driver (in PV the possibility of cloudiness and nighttime, while for the wind its high variability) and the lack of economically convenient storages that could provide more flexibility to the generation. Recently, a solution to this problem has been investigated, using hydrogen as energy vector able to provide the function of storage both in time and place. The last point is at the base of this work, developed in the Politecnico di Torino with the collaboration of both DIMEAS and DENERG, whose goal is to investigate the possibility of coupling hydrogen production through water electrolysis and offshore wind energy harvesting, analyzing the main complications related to the combination of the two processes.